Tuesday, June 19, 2012

German Magazine FOCUS Warns Germans of Collapse

The people of Germany are not entirely unaware of the destructive course of energy starvation which its green leaders have plotted for the nation. And certainly economic and industrial leaders of Germany are beginning to understand that German politicians have thrown the nation's economy into the end game.

Betting the entire future of Germany -- and Europe -- on one huge throw of the green die, Germany's faux environmentalist politicians and bureaucrats have committed a crucial error of leadership. Their radical energy policies have endangered the very basis of modern life in Europe.

FOCUS... warns that Germany’s once super stable power grid, once a model of stability and reliability, is now on the brink of collapse.

...FOCUS reminds its readers that the big price driver is not “greedy” power companies, but government taxes and surcharges, which make up a whopping 45% of the price of electricity. In 1998 the 80 million or so Germans paid about €2.3 billion for various surcharges, taxes etc. on electricity. Today that figure is more than 1000% higher: €23.7 billion!

Not only the costs have become major obstacles, but also the technical feasibility of renewable energies is missing, especially wind and solar, which lack the infrastructure elements for taking the power to the markets that need them. These elements include power transmission lines, back-up energy systems for when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing, and power storage systems.

...If next winter turns out to be a harsh one and the power fails and leaves citizens out in the cold, then there are going to be lots of angry people. Germany’s social powder is tinder dry.

...One year ago Germany, in a fit of hysteria, ordered 8 nuclear power plants closed immediately and the remaining 9 closed by the year 2022. By 2050 it’s energy supply must be at least 80% supplied by renewable sources – costs be damned.

This has come to be knows as the German Energiewende or “energy transition”, roughly translated. And so the mad rush to renewable energy was on in earnest. Today, just a single year later, the high costs and insurmountable technical problems (we warned them) have spooked leaders and sparked a wave of uneasiness to sweep over the country.

...A FOCUS survey found that 41% of Germans flat out reject paying one cent more for renewables. In East Germany, that number jumps to 52%. Only a small minority of less than 10% could imagine paying $25 a month more.

German leaders are spooked by the spiralling out-of-control costs and government seizure now spreading though the energy sector. _FOCUS as excerpted in NoTricksZone

The article then quotes a number of German leaders expressing dismay at the dangerous path of Germany's energy policy.

But I feel that we have to atleast lay the foundations for renewable energy and fuels now as these take decades to build the massive infastructure required. After all fossil fuels aren't going to last forever be economically extracted.

Eventually, even the most slow-witted students of energy will have to learn that intermittent unreliable sources of energy -- such as wind and solar -- can never support an industrial society, no matter how large an infrastructure is built with them.

If you waste resources building an obsolete foundation now, you will not have the resources to build a sound foundation for more advanced energy infrastructures as they are developed.